Gann Memorial Cemetery
Pollok, Angelina County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This burial ground, which contains over 3,000 graves, has served area residents since the mid-1800s. In 1860, Nathan W. Gann, who came to Texas with his family in 1836, donated this property and a church building he constructed to Williams Chapel Methodist Church. The first known burial on this land was of Jacob J. Gann in 1861. In 1893, the church disbanded and this property reverted to Nathan Gann, who then deeded it to the Missionary Baptist Church, which is now known as O'Quinn Baptist Church. Many early Angelina County pioneers used this property as a burial ground. As the area's lumber and agricultural industries developed, a number of rural communities organized. The former Lufkin U.S. Air Force Radar Base (later the site of Lufkin State School) was also located nearby. Gann Memorial Cemetery became the primary burial ground for residents of the area, which became known as the Central-Pollok community. Among those interred here are at least five county officials, over 200 veterans of conflicts dating to the Civil War and numerous members of various fraternal organizations. Over the years, family members of the interred cared for the cemetery, which grew due to the generosity of local landowners. In 1978, the Gann Memorial Cemetery Association began to maintain it. The cemetery features curbing, false crypts, vertical stones and obelisks. Today, Gann Memorial Cemetery continues to serve local families and provides a reminder of the early pioneers of the Central and Pollok communities. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2007
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This burial ground has served the area since the mid-1800s, its land donated in 1860 by Nathan W. Gann along with a church he built for Williams Chapel Methodist congregation. The first known grave dates to 1861, and over generations the property passed among churches while becoming the primary cemetery for the Central-Pollok community. Today more than 3,000 graves—including over 200 veterans reaching back to the Civil War—fill grounds marked by curbing, false crypts, and obelisks.
Why it matters
Gann Memorial Cemetery preserves the pioneers whose farms, churches, and lumber trade built rural Angelina County.
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Related people
- · Nathan W. Gann
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Pollok Baptist Church
Pollok, TX
Founded in 1891 as Warren Chapel Baptist Church, this East Texas congregation took the name Pollok Baptist Church in 1896. Its earliest worshippers shared a meeting place with local Methodists and Presbyterians and baptized new members in the Angelina River before the Baptists acquired their own land in 1906. Fire destroyed three successive church buildings between 1932 and 1960, and each time the congregation rebuilt and carried on.
Vicente Micheli
Lufkin, TX
Born in Italy around 1755, Vicente Micheli reached North America via New Orleans and settled in Spanish Texas by 1793, receiving the first land grant patented by the Spanish Crown in what became Angelina County. In one striking deal he acquired more than 24,000 acres from a member of the Bidais tribe in exchange for goods including a blue petticoat, brass bracelets, and red ribbon, and he traded with Native peoples for the Crown-licensed firm Barr & Davenport. He weathered the upheavals of the Magee-Gutiérrez insurrection, won a royal pardon, and died in San Antonio in 1848 at ninety-three, styling himself "the merchant of Venice."
Redland Baptist Church
Lufkin vicinity, TX
The roots of Redland Baptist Church reach back to 1859, when the Angelina County community organized Liberty Baptist Church, reconstituted in 1895 under its present name. For decades the faithful gathered in a local schoolhouse until they raised their first sanctuary in 1924, followed by new buildings in 1939, 1960, and 1976 as membership grew. The congregation called its first full-time pastor in 1942.
Walker Cemetery
Lufkin, TX
The Red Land community, named for the red soil ridge at its heart, took shape after Thomas R. Walker arrived from North Carolina in 1846 and married Emily Briscoe. Walker served as county sheriff and judge and belonged to the local Masonic lodge, and when he died in 1877 he was buried in this graveyard that predated his purchase of the surrounding land. Deeds from his widow and neighbor J. W. Chamblee in 1892 enlarged the site into a community cemetery that still bears his name.